Media Alert: The Frick Collection Involved in a Major International Collaboration in 2003; Whistler, Women and Fashion

Marking the centenary of the death of James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), The Frick Collection will present Whistler, Women, and Fashion—the first in-depth exploration of the artist’s lifelong involvement in fashion as an essential aspect of his work. The Frick Collection is the sole venue for the exhibition, which features eight magnificent full-length oil portraits of women by Whistler and sixty other works, including oils, his finest prints and drawings, pastel studies for paintings, costume designs by the artist, and portrait etchings and watercolors, as well as fashion plates and period costumes.

The exhibition is organized by Susan Grace Galassi, Curator at The Frick Collection, and the leading Whistler scholar, Margaret F. MacDonald, Principal Research Fellow at the Centre for Whistler Studies at the University of Glasgow; Aileen Ribeiro, Head of the History of Dress Section at the Courtauld Institute of Art, is the costume consultant for the exhibition. The three scholars, joined by Patricia de Montfort, Research Fellow at the Centre for Whistler Studies, are the authors of a fully illustrated accompanying book to be published by Yale University Press. The publication is the first venture between art and dress history that places fashion at the center of a great artist’s work. The book will alsoinclude new biographical material about Whistler’s sitters, among them artists, actresses, society women, and members of his family, and their roles in his life and work.